


Ready or Not, Here I'll Stay

by dorkysetters



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Found Family, Friendship, Hide and Seek, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Angst, Love, M/M, Other, Secrets, friends - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 16:27:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20567369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dorkysetters/pseuds/dorkysetters
Summary: “Are you kidding me?” Eddie whispered, his voice as loud and annoyed as he dared make it in the quiet bathroom. He glared at Richie and jerked his head at the hamper cabinet Richie had just suggested they squeeze themselves into. “Are you joking? We can’t fit in there.”“This is our best bet, Eddy boy.” Richie patted the small pile of clothes lying at the bottom of the cabinet. "Come on in."





	Ready or Not, Here I'll Stay

“Are you kidding me?” Eddie whispered, his voice as loud and annoyed as he dared make it in the quiet bathroom. He glared at Richie and jerked his head at the hamper cabinet Richie had just suggested they squeeze themselves into. “Are you joking? We can’t fit in there.”

Richie opened his mouth to answer. “Hey-” Mike interrupted. He and Stan poked their heads through the bathroom door and glanced around the room frantically, a wild look in both their eyes.

“Taken!” Eddie and Richie hissed. The pair at the door groaned quietly, leaving quickly to find their own hiding spot. 

It had been Beverly who suggested the game. Four hours of nonstop rain had turned a fun day in the Barrens into a slow day at Stan’s house. The seven of them had squeezed into Stan’s bedroom, the door wide open so Stan’s mother could walk by every now and then and make sure nothing inappropriate- that Marsh girl was trouble, she was sure- was going on. It had only taken an hour to go through all of Stan’s comic books, and even less time for Bill to quarantine himself in a corner, staring blankly out Stan’s bedroom window at the rain falling outside. The rest of the losers had shared concerned, knowing glances with each other as they watched their friend, their leader, relieve the last rainy day Derry had seen, just a few weeks before. 

“Hey,” Beverly had said at last, softly throwing one of Stan’s pillows at Bill’s face. “Why don’t we do something?”

Bill took the pillow between his hands and picked at the edge of the pillowcase. “Like what? It’s r-r-r-raining.”

Beverly shrugged. “Hide and seek?”

Six concerned faces stared at Bill expectantly. He shrugged, unable or unwillingly to acknowledge their concern. “Sounds good to me.”

So here they were now, Eddie and Richie, standing outside Stan’s hamper cabinet. Bill’s voice floated quietly from the living room where he was counting. 

“Eleven, twelve, th-th-thirteen…”

“This is our best bet, Eddy boy.” Richie crouched down and opened the hamper door slowly. They wrinkled their noses at the faint dirty laundry smell that wafted out. Richie patted the small pile of clothes lying at the bottom of the cabinet and silently thanked the lord that there was not a hamper basket inside. “Right here’s a loverly piece-a property for ya, Mista Kasprak. Real top-notch quality.” He picked up a pair of white underwear and waved it in Eddie’s face. “Free tidy whities too, for when ya cream ya pants-”

“Shut up. I am not going in there. No way.”

Richie sighed. “Look Eds, no one’s hid in here yet, and Bill’ll think it’s too small to get in anyway.”

“Yeah, that’s cause it is too small, dumbass.”

“You need to open your mind, Eddy-poo. Live a little.” He shimmied into the cabinet butt first, pulling his knees close to his chest and forcing himself as close to the wall as he could. He smiled goofily as he settled himself and nodded to the small amount of empty space remaining. “Look, plenty-a room.” 

“I’m not getting in there. You could pull a muscle sitting like that.” 

“Alright,” Richie shrugged awkwardly. “I just hope you can find a better hiding spot before Big Bill gets to fifty”

Eddie listened for Bill’s voice. “Forty-two, forty-three- Hey, I can h-h-hear somebody behind the couch! Just saying.”

“Shit,” Eddie cursed. He took his aspirator out of his pocket and held it in his hands while he squeezed into the cabinet. It took some fumbling for them to compromise on positions comfortable enough for both of them; Eddie’s knees pushed painfully against the back wall of the cabinet, Richie’s feet laid heavily atop his own. Both of them were folded into themselves, making their bodies as small and compact as possible.

“This sucks,” Eddie hissed. He struggled to take a puff from his aspirator. For once, Richie had nothing to say in disagreement. 

They listened in anxious silence for Bill to announce the end of his counting. Their breath sounded too loud in the cramped cabinet and seemed to be obvious enough to jeopardize their hiding space.

Finally, Bill was finished. “R-r-ready or not, here I c-c-c-ome!”

Richie grinned. “They’re hereee,” he mimicked, his voice sickly sweet.

“Shut up,” Eddie used his knee to hit Richie in the thigh. He took another puff from his aspirator. “We’re gonna suffocate in here if you keep using up all the oxygen with your stupid voices.”

Richie took a long, exaggerated breath in and let it out, warm and smelling like the hot dogs they’d had for lunch, into Eddie’s face.

“God,” Eddie gagged. “your breath smells like dick.”

“Must be from hanging out with your mom last night.”

Eddie opened his mouth to say that his mother did not have a dick, thank you very much, but felt Richie’s hand clamp over his mouth before he could get the words out. He stared at Richie, eyes wide, hoping his thoughts were being transmitted telepathically through his annoyed gaze. What the fuck are you doing?

Richie jerked his head toward the hamper door. Eddie heard the sound of shuffling feet, of someone pulling the shower curtain aside and moving the creaking bathroom door open to check behind it. 

Bill stopped right outside the hamper cabinet; his body blocked the little light that had been filtering in before and trapped the boys in hot, nervous darkness. Eddie shuddered. “I don’t th-th-th… I don’t think anybody’s in here.” 

“Look,” Stanley’s quiet voice floated towards them from somewhere farther away. “I’m pretty sure I know where Eddie and Richie are. If you would just let me show you-”

“No,” Bill stated, his voice firm. “They hid, I have to f-f-find them. Those are the rules.” He moved away from the cabinet door, towards where Stan’s voice had been. “Let’s go look somewhere else.”

Richie let out a sigh of relief once he was sure the pair were gone. His chest filled with admiration and gratefulness for what Bill had said, for saving them from being found prematurely. “Thank god for Big Bill.” 

Eddie nodded proudly. “He’s a good man.” 

Richie nodded back. “The best.”

Eddie sighed and leaned his head against the wall. He focused on taking tiny sips of air, worried about oxygen deprivation and hypoxemia. Richie played with the hem of his shirt. 

They sat like that for what seemed like a long while, well past the point where their joints were beginning to feel sore. Though they both longed to stretch out their legs, pride kept them in their place. 

“So,” Richie whispered, breaking the long silence. “Whatdya wanna talk about?”

Eddie glared at him. “Are you crazy? They’ll hear us!”

“Silly Eds, not if we whisper. And not unless they’re in the bathroom.” 

Eddie rolled his eyes. “Fine. Just try not to take all of my fucking oxygen, alright?.”

“Tsk tsk.” Richie shook his head disapprovingly. “Do you really kiss your mother with that mouth? No wonder she looks so fucking miserable all the time.”

“Beep beep, Richie,” Eddie grumbled. The silence that fell over them now was less comfortable. Eddie searched his mind, looking for something that could break it. “I guess… we could play truth or dare?”

“Does it look like we could do any dares in here? Unless you wanna take a whiff of Stan’s dirty socks over and over again.”

“I don’t see you coming up with any better ideas!”

They sat in silence for another long moment, before Eddie spoke up again. “We could do truth or truth?”

Richie’s face turned red. The sudden shame welling in his eyes, wet and hot, surprised him. “No!” he exclaimed, too loudly. They listened in tense silence to see if any of the others had heard the outburst.

“Geez,” Eddie held up his hands as best he could in the cramped space in an exasperated apology. “Keep your pants on. We don’t have to play.”

Richie mumbled something and put his head on his knees. Eddie watched his friend struggle with something he couldn’t say aloud and felt the urge to run his hands through Richie’s hair, just like his mother did when she thought he was sick. Instead, he took a puff from his aspirator, just enough to give him the confidence to say what he wanted to. 

“I know you have, uh,” Eddie fumbled, unsure of how to proceed. “A secret. That you can’t tell anybody.”

Richie whipped his head up to face Eddie. His face was splotchy, but the tears that had threatened to spill out of his eyes earlier were gone. Eddie sighed in relief; he, like most young boys, hated watching people cry. 

“I don’t.”

Eddie looked at his friend firmly, and poured as much stern affection into his words as he could. “Yeah, you do. I don’t give a shit what it is. You don’t have to tell anyone. I just know you have one, is all.” 

Richie considered his words. He sniffed and wiped his nose with his fist. “You have any secrets?”

Eddie shrugged. “Everybody does.” 

“Well I don’t give a shit what yours is either.”

“Beep beep, Richie.”

Just then, the door to the cabinet swung open. Their eyes, unaccustomed to the light after spending so long in their dark, cramped hiding space had to squint to focus on the figures in front of them. They both took deep breaths as fresh air replaced the stale oxygen they’d been breathing before. Bill, Mike, Ben, and Stan crouched to look into the cabinet. 

“Hah! F-f-finally found you guys!” Bill exclaimed, his face flushed with victory. “We’ve been looking for you forever!”

“Yo,” Richie waved, his voice light now. Eddie smiled. “Have you found Bev yet?”

“No, not yet. You can help us now since she’s the last one.” Bill held out a hand for Richie and pulled him out.

“Can we hurry?” Stan whined. “I really have to go to the bathroom.”

Bill smiled. “We have no idea where Bev is. Well, Ben does but he won’t t-t-t-tell us.”

Ben smiled smugly and pretended to zip his lips and throw away the key. 

Richie nodded and turned back to the hamper. “One sec, you guys go ahead.” He watched the other boys file out and held out his hand for Eddie. “You’re just a good a man as Big Bill, Eds. Just as good.”

Eddie fought back a grin. “Beep beep, Richie.”

**Author's Note:**

> I love these boys and their gaggle of losers so much. Thanks for reading and feel free to hit me up on tumblr @magicktaako !


End file.
